With the New Orleans Saints and LSU Tigers both playing this evening, many New Orleans residents may have trouble keeping up with all the action. Never fear! Your trusty local NOLA.com writer is going to attempt to blog both the Saints and Tigers games this evening! (After which, I shall pass out from exhaustion.)

We've got you covered here though at NOLA. In addition to my little efforts here, you'll get Saints and LSU beat blogs and total game logs from a pair of our other writers. Hey, it's a crazy night, so we figured a crazy amount of coverage was warranted.

Pregame thoughts:

Lou Holtz cannot string two intelligent sentences together. Why is he on the air? Mark May often angers me greatly with the kind of silliness he usually perpetuates, but at least he is intelligible. Chris Tucker's immortal words come to mind: "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?" In Holtz's case, um, not so much.

The Saints game promises to be stinker for anyone looking for the first-stringers to put up big numbers. BUT, this is a huge game for determining the rest of the roster. Is it going to be Antonio Pittman or Pierre Thomas? Or either? Can Tyler Palko cement a spot behind Jamie Martin? Who's going to be the odd man out at receiver. Will Fred Thomas make it? Tonight will provide some major clues.

As for LSU, I'm just excited to have college football back. The Tigers expect to roll in this one, though I would not be surprised to see Mississippi State take advantage of the home crowd and keep it close for a half. The recent history suggests it will be over by the time the drumline stops playing in pregame, but can that really continue forever? Regardless, Les Miles is looking for a solid effort throughout, not just patches of greatness. It would be easy for these guys to try to coast. Developing bad habits like that is something Miles will work to avoid.

1st Quarter

Miss Mississippi? James Carville? What the heck was that? Why are they introducing players? Is ESPN this desperate for gimmicks?

So three and out for the LSU defense, which figures to be dominant all year. That is the kind of start you want to see -- the hit on the fumble and the coverage on third down were both impressive.

The Saints have started off with a Pierre Thomas run. It's safe to say they want to get a good, long look at him after last week's explosion. They want him to show more of the same.

Give Matt Flynn credit for completing a nice pass on third down in a tough environment. He looked good on that scramble too.

Oh wow, Thomas kicked it into a whole 'nother stratosphere on that screen pass! Can anyone doubt his speed? He's making a major move towards making the roster -- and that touchdown doesn't hurt either.

Will penalties hurt LSU this year? They did on that drive, turning a first down into a nice pass breakup for the Bulldogs and more ammunition for a fired-up crowd. I do think this thing could be tough for LSU for a bit longer.

Pressure by Highsmith causes an interception and the LSU defense responds. Seriously, I know MSU has problems on offense, but this LSU defense could be one of the best of all time. Time will tell, but I will say this: I think they look so fearsome that I may wet myself -- and I'm sitting in my living room!

The announcers love the tailback by committee, but most folks know it rarely works. I think it should probably be at least brought up as a potential negative for LSU this season. The team may be good enough to overcome it (and someone could always emerge to grab the lion's share of the carries), but it's not always a positive. In fact, it's rarely a positive for national title contenders.

"It's a whole new ballgame." Just saw a commercial for Tulane football, and I think Bob Toledo used about 70 different cliche's in 30 seconds (impressive, I know!). I think for his sake, it better be a "whole new ballgame" for Tulane, and soon.

Well I crown the LSU defense the '85 Bears and they give up a long drive. That figures. We'll see if they hold on third down.

The Saints are bringing pretty good heat on the Dolphins QBs. Oy, and Brian Simmons misses a tackle. He showed good burst in getting there, but if he wants to start, he has to tackle.

Blech -- A fumbled snap and we now have no idea if LSU has any fortitude on defense or not. I think the only thing that can be gathered from that is that MSU may continue to have a hard time avoiding tripping over itself this year.

Hmm, Fred Thomas made a nice break on the ball, but he dropped a potential interception. It would be nice to see him do something positive without a "but" attached to it. Kaes showed good speed in filling the lane -- great play by him would be a tremendous help to the whole "D".

Can LSU run outside? 71 yards through a quarter of play look nice, though most of that seems to be coming in the middle. Maybe MSU, though overmatched, has some nice defensive speed?